If May is when the big exodus from Mesquite occurs with the snowbirds, someone forgot to tell the visitors coming into town.

Almost 9,000 more people visited Mesquite in May than did a year ago, when 94,701 people stopped by for a few days. That is a 10.5 percent increase.

It continues the year's trend towards increasing visitor volumes from 2011 and is the largest increase year-over-year for 2012. It leaves Mesquite's Visitor Volume total increase in the black for the year-to-date at 4.7 percent.

Total Occupancy in local hotels increased a very slight 1.1 percent, at 81.6 percent, from May 2011.

That matches the same percentage increase in Total Room Nights Occupied, from a year ago, at 1.1 percent increase with 44,597 actual room nights occupied.

Those numbers are an indication of how many people stay overnight in Mesquite hotels and for how long.

As small an increase as both of those categories show in May, it's the first time either of them are in the positive range since April 2011.

The average cost of rooms increased 3.3 percent from a year ago to just over $53 but still remained lower than April's average cost of $57.

Gross Gaming Revenue fell a slight 1.2 percent from May 2011 coming in at $9.9 million dollars. That's the second month in a row gaming revenues have fallen from one year earlier. It's also the lowest amount of gaming dollars taken in for the calendar year.

This category had seen a steady rise month-to-month since last August until April's minor drop of 0.8 percent.

Mesquite's gaming venues are still in the black for the year at a 2.7 percent increase from the same point in 2011.

The average number of cars traveling on Interstate 15 increased 1.2 percent to 22,352 daily in May compared to a year earlier.

However, when the year-to-date average is considered, the number of vehicles on the highway is down 1.8 percent for the year.

On the upside, May is the first month since last December that traveler counts on I-15 increased from the same point a year earlier.

Mesquite's sister city to the south, Laughlin, had its visitor volume dropping 7.9 percent from May 2011. Total Occupancy dropped 3.7 percent and Total Room Nights Occupied fell 6.0 percent. Gross Gaming Revenue in Laughlin though was up a whopping 20.1 percent compared to May 2011.